Meta’s India and Southeast Asia Chief Joins OpenAI as Asia Push Accelerates

Introduction

OpenAI is adding a senior executive with extensive experience in India and Southeast Asia as it builds out its Asia-Pacific organization. Sandhya Devanathan, Meta’s vice president for India and Southeast Asia, is leaving the company after more than a decade to join OpenAI. She will be based in Singapore and report to Kiran Mani, OpenAI’s managing director for Asia-Pacific.

In her new role, Devanathan will oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement and operations across Southeast Asia and Australia. The appointment gives OpenAI a regional leader who has worked across consumer platforms, business operations and policy-sensitive markets.

Key points

• Devanathan joined Meta in 2016 and held several leadership positions, including responsibility for the company’s Asia-Pacific gaming business.
• She became Meta’s vice president for India and Southeast Asia in June last year.
• Her OpenAI remit spans consumer and enterprise growth, partnerships, regulatory relations and regional operations.
• OpenAI recently appointed former Uber executive Prabhjeet Singh as its India head.
• Over the past two years, OpenAI has opened offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and Delhi.
• After Devanathan’s departure, Meta India managing director Arun Srinivas will report directly to Benjamin Joe, Meta’s vice president for Asia-Pacific.

Why it matters

The move suggests that OpenAI’s regional expansion is moving beyond office openings and product distribution. The company is assembling a local leadership structure that covers sales, adoption, partnerships and government engagement. Southeast Asia, Australia and India represent distinct markets, but all are important to the broader competition for enterprise AI deployments and consumer attention.

Devanathan’s background could be particularly useful as OpenAI navigates different regulatory expectations and business environments. Her responsibilities indicate that the company is treating regional execution as a core part of its growth strategy rather than as a supporting function managed from headquarters.

The transition also comes at a difficult moment for Meta in India. Earlier this month, Instagram apologized after mistakenly restricting a post published by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July. Indian authorities summoned Meta executives, including global affairs chief Joel Kaplan, over the incident. The government has also sought explanations regarding Instagram advertisements that allegedly offered access to child sexual abuse material, following a BBC report.

Meta said it removed the violating advertisements and accounts, and rejected claims that it knowingly targeted such ads at users based on inappropriate interests. The company also said it had removed 160,000 accounts in India over six months based on signals associated with child-exploitative activity.

Devanathan’s departure does not by itself establish a change in Meta’s India strategy. Still, the timing highlights the operational challenge facing Meta as it manages regulatory pressure and leadership continuity, while OpenAI competes for experienced executives who can turn regional AI interest into durable partnerships and adoption.

Source: TechCrunch AI